A Prayer for the Dying
by Seguchi Touma
Summary: Brad/Schu - Deathfic - A single death creates ripples that affect Weiß and Schwarz alike.
1. A Prayer for the Dying - A Death

A Prayer for the Dying  
  
by Zoisite NightDragon  
  
Genre: Weiß Kreuz  
Rating: I guess PG-13... I'm hideous at ratings.  
Part: 1/2  
Pairing: BradxSchu, NagixFarf and AyaxKen hints  
Warnings: DEATHFIC, angst, language  
  
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Synopsis: How does Schwarz deal with one of their own dying and the aftermath?  
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He sat silently holding the other man's hand in his, fingertips tracing over the pale flesh as if he could stir some life into the by the force of his will alone. The other's hand was lax in his own, seeming to be made of a warm wax rather than flesh and bone. As Brad Crawford gazed down at the telepath's face, he couldn't make himself believe that Schuldich was merely sleeping, that he would wake and make some hentai comment or call him by his first name or... That line of thought was cut off, too painful to continue. The paleness of the German's face, how the skin was stretched too tightly over the frail bones beneath was enough for him to have to look at and know that Schuldich was dying.   
  
Takatori.  
  
It all came back to Takatori in Crawford's mind, a thought that his own whirled and twisted about like a hive of angered wasps. Takatori and his fucking golfclub. Pressing his lips to the lifeless fingers held against his own, Brad remembered all too well the day that their former employer had nearly beaten Schuldich and Farfarello to death over the death of his daughter. The headaches had begun then, but were overlooked. There were too many things going on that demanded attention that left those as being petty, easily overlooked.  
  
When they had crawled out of the sea, more dead than alive, Crawford had taken Schwarz away, led them to make their own futures instead of the ones that had been dictated by the crumbling SZ. He had finally told Schuldich one the sandy white beach of the Bahamas that he loved him, and the two of them had made love for the first time within those warm, clear waters. The next day, he had gotten them matching wedding bands, slipping one onto Schuldich's finger as he had been on bended knee before him. It was the first time he had ever seen Schuldich cry. It was not to be the last.  
  
After that, they had returned to Toyko. Nagi had been put into the best school that was near them, none of them willing to break up after all that had happened. They were family, bound together by more blood that they had walked through than flowed in their veins. Blood was thicker than water, be it their own or someone else's. It had been idyllic... right up until Schuldich had gone into a seizure one night while fixing dinner with Nagi.  
  
That was a memory that laid too clear in Brad's mind as his eyes were drawn back up to Schuldich's still face. He had heard his mate laughing about something and a muttered reply on Nagi's part as a reply. A smile had just barely quirked at his lips as he turned back to the financial report on the tele. Then had come the shattering of something glass and heavy on the floor. In his mind, that moment had taken on a nightmarish slowness as he rose from the couch, already knowing something was wrong... badly wrong. Nagi's shrieking of his name came next, not knowing what to do as he knelt beside the spasming telepath. Those green eyes that he had gazed into lazily after sex were jerking wildly in their sockets, not seeing anything around him. The body that he had held so close to his own was trembling and lashing in the shards of glass that had been the salad bowl the German had been carrying.  
  
When Brad had seen the creeping shadow on the CAT scan taken the next day, he didn't need his precognative abilities to know what was going to be said next. He didn't need to compare them to the old ones from the days of Schwarz to know that the darkness had gotten larger. They had all known that Schuldich's telepathy carried a price, that it did do damage to his brain when used. It had been a simple thing to overlook and ignore, like children hiding under the blankets and believing the monster in their closet couldn't get them there.  
  
A soft touch to Crawford's shoulder brought him back to the present, his free hand rising to wipe the tears that had begun to slid down his cheeks. Nagi's hand squeezed his shoulder gently, the telekinetic saying nothing for the moment. The American rose gracefully to his feet as he touched a kiss to those delicate lips of his mate that would never again whisper his name at climax, calling it out again a second later for all the world to hear. He nodded softly to Nagi as Farfarello appeared at the youth's shoulder, the Irishman's hand curling within Nagi's easily. Crawford's own fingers kept Schuldich's hand within his own as he lowered the other to the plug for the respirator that was keeping him alive. Nagi's held to the cardiac machine. Farfarello took the mass of others that seemed to be sprouting out of the wall. On some inner signal between them all, they jerked them out of the wall, severing the artifical life that had been given to Schuldich while the man himself was long dead. For months there had been no brain activity.  
  
Crawford's voice was strained as he spoke, turning off the ones that had begun to drone their flatline beep, "I'd like to be alone... please."  
  
Nagi and Farfarello's touches and murmured words registered with the American, although his eyes never left Schuldich's face. Inside, he had some hope that those jaden eyes would reopen, that there would be a moment where the clock would turn back and return what it had stolen. He had known back when he saw that CAT scan that there would not be. Whenever he had gazed at his lover from that time forward, he saw no future for Schuldich beyond dying in a hospital bed, being kept alive only by cold machines. Now, as he gazed into the mirror across the room above the sink, he saw that same bleak darkness for himself. What was life without the one thing that made it worth living?  
  
Crawford was never one to not be prepared. He'd taken nearly an entire bottle of Valium before even coming. It had been a matter of staying awake for all of it. The iron will that had made and kept him as the leader of a group of assassins had served him well once more. Curling into the bed with Schuldich's body, his arms wrapped about the other's form. As he began to slide into whatever lay beyond, his memory rolled back to that day in the white sands, exploring his new lover's body for the first time.  
  
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The first snowfall of the season dotted the ground, falling across the slim shoulders of the youth sometimes known as Bombay, other times as Tsukiyono Omi. The graveyard he walked through brought a shudder from him that the cold itself couldn't. Within his arms were two bouquets of tearoses.... ones that meant 'I'll Always Remember'. Nagi had told him last night when they'd spoken on the phone, told him were to find the two lonely graves. It somehow seemed ... right that he come say good-bye.  
  
Suprise seized him as he saw another there already. Black leather encased the man who knelt between the two headstones, working on something. The head of red hair was unmistakable. Fujimiya Ran... Aya-kun... Abyssinian. Omi was silent as he drew closer, knowing already that he had probably been heard by the other's sharp ears.  
  
"I saw him once, you know. Just passing on the street, and there he was, leaning against a post and smoking a clove. He smiled that same smirk he always wore and even called me by name."  
  
Omi nodded slowly at Ran's words, hearing the undertones of some hurt in them. "Nagi told me when... when they knew Schuldich was dying. He suspected that you and Ken might know they were here once more."  
  
Ran's head bobbed in a nod as he kept working between the two graves. "I could only stare at him for a time. Here was the man who had been there laughing as Nagi pressed the detonator that killed my parents and put my sister in a coma. All I could do was stare. I finally got out the question of what was he doing here, where was Schwarz, what was going on. Do you know what he told me?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"He told me that they were living. It was simple like that for him. Living. No more assassination, no more SZ or Kritiker. No more killing or worries. Just living."  
  
Omi's lips formed a faint smile, hugging the flowers to him gently. "They walked away and into a normal life. We kept killing. Doesn't seem fair, does it?"  
  
The leader of Weiß rose slowly, dusting himself off as he stepped back. Two headstones were before them, the dusting of snow settling across their tops and into the grooves of the names carved there. Bradley Jacob Crawford. Schuldich Crawford. Between them now was a rose bush, one that would sleep in the winter as those it guarded and burst with blooms come the spring. Ran's amethyst eyes were calm, nearly peaceful as he cast aside the small shovel he had been using. "They're red and white roses mixed. It means unity, love. I thought it fit them."  
  
Laying his own gift upon the two freshly filled graves, Omi nodded and joined Ran as they walked away, leaving the winter's silence to cover the two.  
  
Somewhere, two souls came together, never to be parted again. 


	2. A Prayer for the Dying - The End

Rollin' through the hood   
Just stopped by to say what's up   
Came to let you know   
That your baby boy ain't doing so tough   
And even though you passed   
Going on four long years   
Still waking up late at night crying tears   
  
Nagi walked through the maze of headstones, seeking the two that he had picked out himself. Ones that he had chosen the final resting places of. It was the profusion of red and white rose blossoms that he saw before the graves themselves. For some reason, the plant had taken hold and grown like wildfire, always showering the two it kept watch over below with the crimson and ivory petals. Pausing before them, Nagi felt the old heat of tears prick at his eyes. Four years, and he still missed them desperately at times.  
  
Just thinking about those days   
You used to talk to me   
Smilin' while I'm sippin' on this Hennesy   
And remember we bragged on how rich we would be   
To get up out this hood was like a fantasy   
  
Sitting down between the two graves, he drew his legs up to his chest. Eyes of midnight shards drifted closed as the hot waters crept over his lashed, falling like rain upon his cheeks. "I graduated today, Crawford. Top of my class. No one was even near the grades that I made. I already have people calling me and offering me jobs, not that I really need to work. I think I do it more out of boredom than anything. With you two gone, it's just... too lonely with only Farf and me."  
  
And now you hear my songs the radio is bangin'   
Oh I can't believe my ears   
And what everybody's sayin'   
And boy I'll tell you   
Folks don't know the half   
I would give it all up   
Just to take one ride   
  
"I don't know if you know or not, but Farfarello and I ended up joining Kritiker. Two weeks after the funerals, Ran... he was Abyssinian, the leader of Weiß... came to our home. He had an offer for me, a place to put my skills to work. Maybe get back a little vengeance is what I thought. You didn't have to tell me that it was Takatori's fault at what happened, Crawford. I knew it. Even Farf knew it. I think that's why I took him up on his offer... to get back at the ghost of the man who destroyed my life by taking the two of you away from me."  
  
(With you)   
How I used to kick it on the front porch   
(With you)   
And how I used to lay back and smoke weed   
(With you)   
And all the little days and party joints we'd do   
Now I'm just missing you   
How I wish   
  
"Remember when we came back to Toyko, and we had that big fight on whether or not I would be going to college. I kept saying that I didn't see the use in it, that I wasn't like others who had a life before them. Schu got so angry with me then, shaking me until I had bruises the next day from where his hands were on my arms. I think he knew back then, before anyone told him or he had that seizure. I think he knew long before we did. He told me that I had to keep living no matter what, that one event, one thing didn't change much. Nothing was worth dying for. I guess you weren't listening, Brad."  
  
I wish that I could hold you now   
I wish that I could touch you now   
I wish that I could talk to you   
Be with you somehow   
I know you're in a better place   
And you know I can see your face   
I know you're smiling down on me   
Saying everything's okay   
And if I never leave this thug life   
I'll see you again someday   
I wish, I wish, I wish   
I wish, I wish, I wish   
  
"It isn't fair. You and Schuldich should have been there. I wanted you to see me graduate. I wanted to feel him tugging at my mind, teasing me about the girls or boys watching me and all their naughty hentai thoughts. I wanted to be like the rest and look out over that sea of faces and see yours."  
  
Now ever since this money come   
Been nothing but stress   
Sometimes I wish I could trade in my success   
Y'all look at me and say boy you've been blessed   
But y'all don't see the inside of my unhappiness   
Man I swear this shit gets heavy like a ton   
That's why you hear me shootin'   
This real shit off like a gun   
Hmm I wonder how my friends would treat me now   
If I wasn't iced up with a Bentley and a house   
That's why fake ass niggas get fake ass digits   
And fake ass playas get a real playa hatin' 'em   
Honey Love goes platinum and y'all ass come around   
But y'all don't wanna raise the roof   
Until my shit is going down   
  
A frail seeming hand moved through the fall of white and red petals that lay across Schuldich's grave, the telekinetic scattering them slowly through his fingers. "I miss you two so much. Even now, I still hear whispers sometimes while working with other agents of Kritiker than Weiß. The great Schwarz. They've made you two out to be monsters. I suppose that I am too. Just another devil. I've had to walk out before I crush someone for some of the things they say. Manx keeps telling me that it will pass, to ignore it, but you're my family that they're talking about. You meant so much to me."  
  
And now you hear my songs the radio is bangin'   
Oh I can't believe my ears   
And what everybody's sayin'   
And boy I'll tell you   
Folks don't know the half   
I would give it all up   
Just to take one ride   
  
"I never got to tell either of you that. Always distant, always keeping everyone away from me so I wouldn't be hurt. Even Tot. I remember you telling me that I was more in love with the idea of loving Tot than with the girl herself, Schuldich. Looking back, I think you were right. I hurt when she died, more than I ever thought I could, but it went away. It faded until one day I didn't think about her anymore. And then the next... and the next. That still hasn't happened with you two. Four years. I still miss you both so damn much."  
  
(With you)   
How I used to hoop off in them tournaments   
(With you)   
And how I used to club hop on weekends   
(With you)   
Your family called the morning of the tragic end   
Damn, my condolensces   
  
"Brad, how could you just leave us like that? We kept waiting and waiting for you to come out before Farf and I walked back in. It was too late. You were already dead, the both of you wrapped up in each other's arms. Schuldich, you damn well better be taking care of him and setting him straight on his priorities for once. You don't up and leave those that love you, Crawford!"  
  
I wish that I could hold you now   
I wish that I could touch you now   
I wish that I could talk to you   
Be with you somehow   
I know you're in a better place   
And you know I can see your face   
I know you're smiling down on me   
Saying everything's okay   
And if I never leave this thug life   
I'll see you again someday   
I wish, I wish, I wish   
I wish, I wish, I wish   
  
Rage broke across Nagi's heart, a layer of ice finally splintering under the heat of it. Whirlwinds captured up the fallen petals and tossed them about him viciously. "You didn't have to go, Brad! I still needed you! Farf still needed you! You had a commitment to us, damn it! You left us alone. We were still here for you, but I guess that wasn't enough next to Schuldich, was it? All anyone had to do was see the looks you two gave each other to know that you were the other's life..."  
  
Voices in my head be telling me to come to church   
Saying the Lord is the only way for you to stop the hurt   
Dreaming of windows black tinted like a hurst   
When waking up to life sometimes seems worst   
And all I ever wanted is to be a better man   
And I try to keep it real with my homies now   
For me to save the world I don't understand   
How did I become the leader of a billion men?   
  
"After Tot died, I didn't want to feel that pain again," Nagi murmured as he moved his hand onto Brad's grave, the whirlwinds ripping at the air about him finally calming down. Another shower of petals stirred up by his powers fell about him, bringing to mind the time he had showered the girl with sakura. That memory didn't push the splinter of ice into his heart as this one did. The tears that had begun to drift down his wan cheeks increased to a flood, letting loose his emotions as he never could around others. He was the quiet and calm one, not prone to losing control.  
  
And now you hear my songs the radio is bangin'   
Oh I can't believe my ears   
And what everybody's sayin'   
And boy I'll tell you   
Folks don't know the half   
I would give it all up   
Just to take one ride   
  
Stretching out on the ground between the two, Nagi's fist pounded against the ground uselessly like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Letting it fall back to the ground, he sighed softly. "I wanted you two to know. I see Ran and Ken together all the time, how they love each other, and it reminds me so much of you two. I wonder at times if Farfarello and I will be like that eventually. That we'll be able to look at each other at times and live in each other's gazes. Like you two did."  
  
(With you)   
How I used to street perform on Friday   
(With you)   
And how I used to go to church on Easter Sunday   
(With you)   
Standing here throwing them songs at me   
Somebody pray for me   
  
Nagi laid there, letting petals drift down to kiss against his face and stick to his tear stained cheeks before standing. A coiled paper was drawn out of his shirt and laid at the base of Brad's grave, held in place with a stone. "The name on it is Nagi Crawford. Naoe... didn't seem right after all we'd been through. He's dead. Nagi Crawford isn't. I hope you were there today, you two, instead of sneaking off for a moment together."  
  
I wish that I could hold you now   
I wish that I could touch you now   
I wish that I could talk to you   
Be with you somehow   
I know you're in a better place   
And you know I can see your face   
I know you're smiling down on me   
Saying everything's okay   
And if I never leave this thug life   
I'll see you again someday   
I wish, I wish, I wish   
I wish, I wish, I wish  
  
Thin fingers were touched to Nagi's lips as he kissed them and then touched them to each of the two headstones. Turning away, he started down the path to the outside world. A fall of petals ran over his shoulder and into his shirt. From somewhere behind him, he could have sworn he heard Schuldich's laughter. A hint of a smile took to his lips as he met Farfarello and the sidewalk and started for home. 


End file.
